Solidify Your Characters
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Solidify Your Characters
Are you having trouble making your hero likable? You probably need to work on his setup. Re-examine his character. If his character traits are no longer the best ones, brainstorm new ones. Display your character's traits through action and dialogue instead of describing them. Remember the golden rule: Show, don't tell.
Then do the same thing for your antagonist, and repeat for every major character.
Here are some more points to keep in mind during the rewrite:
• Do your characters have clear agendas and goals? Is their primary conflict external?
• Does every character in the script have a story purpose? Are they the best characters for this story?
• Do you have two characters that are too similar? If so, can you eliminate one or combine them into a single character?
• Have you given your characters an inner conflict and a character flaw?
• Are your characters drawn into relationship through rapport and conflict?
• Do all major characters have a character arc?
• Are your hero and antagonist introduced in a compelling and dramatically exciting way?
There's no story without conflict, and at this point in your rewrite, you might want to try the following exercise. Create a mind map of conflict. Write down the name of your hero, his antagonist(s), and every substantial secondary character. Then draw arrows indicating who is in conflict with whom, and over what. If any one character is left without an arrow pointing directly or indirectly to your hero, he or she is a hindrance to your script. Even your hero's best friend ought to disagree with him at some point.
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